Mark Strong Quotes

I'm not contractually obligated to sequels on anything.

Every musician in the known universe has signed a bad piece of paper, myself included. But it's really very simple. You're the artist. It's your picture that's going on the CD cover, nobody else's. Protect yourself. Get a good lawyer. You'll kick yourself later if you don't.

Career diversification ain't a bad thing.

Film people are coming into TV, because they can't get any work.

Sequels are not done for the audience or cinema or the filmmakers. It's for the distributor. The film becomes a brand.

I know that producing will ultimately mean more longevity in the business, so when I'm tired of everything else and want to be behind the cameras, I know that I can produce.

A lifetime contract for a coach means if you're ahead in the third quarter and moving the ball, they can't fire you.

I think producers are more interested in backing concepts than directors and writers. I don't think that's the right way of making a decision about whether you're going to back a film or not.

As a jobbing actor, I never get a script and go 'I can't be bothered with this.' Life doesn't work like that. For a movie star, maybe, but for a jobbing actor, that doesn't happen.

I'm not particularly a career-oriented guy. I'm lucky. I can make really interesting films much of the time with interesting people yet be anonymous, have a private life. But, I'd like to have the choice of the better roles.

When any young director gets hired by a studio to do a $125 million film based on a preexisting piece of intellectual property, they're climbing into the meat grinder. And what you're coming out with on the other side is a generic, heavily studio-controlled pile of garbage that ends up on the side of Burger King wrappers.

What career? A man's got a body of film of about four movies in about 10 years or something. I do it because I think I can do a good job of something and I'll enjoy it, do it, and sort of vanish. I don't want to be an actor for hire.

I'm not going to comment about potential jobs in the future because that's a rabbit hole to go down and get caught up in, but all I'll say is I'll go where the good scripts are.

The only pitch I have to movie people is the same as this one: Just give me $8 million. I'm not telling you what it's about and I'm not telling you who's in it.

This is mine; this is mine. I run it, I own it, and I created it. And nobody is going to make any money out of it except me.

A lot of the time, the scripts you get to read are remakes or reboots or sequels or prequels.

In big movies, interests are not aligned between those above the line and the financier, because above the line gets paid whether the movie works or not. The financier only makes money if the movie works, and that fundamentally sets up a contentious relationship.

What's so great about DreamWorks is that it's run by filmmakers who believe that if it's not broke, don't fix it.

With 'The Last Picture Show,' Peter Bogdanovich brought the script to the company that made it. They liked it, and they gave him the money he needed to make the film. He cast it with the actors that he thought were right for the parts. Now, it's the reverse.

I've made six films for Disney, and they have a clause in their contracts called the morality clause that I've always refused to sign.

I'd never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities.

In TV, writers generally are the show runners, and they have enormous control over everything. In feature films, very often the writer will turn in a script and never be heard from again.

There's a long history of people who spent that $300,000 on their first film and weren't quite ready, and then they never did it again 'cause they were out of synch with where they were, and they would never raise that money again.

Content financing is a difficult beast no matter what era of Hollywood we're talking about.

I think the commercial world is a lateral step from features. Some people see it as a step down, but I've never understood that.